Call for Abstracts
Christian Petersen Faculty Forum
Submission Deadline December 10, 2009
Event Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010
Christian Petersen Art Museum, Morrill Hall
Iowa State University faculty are encouraged to submit scholarly abstracts
(300-500 words) discussing and
artistic work relevant to Christian Petersen's art, teaching and era. This
will be a half-day event at which faculty will present work that speaks to
issues and institutions prominent during Petersen's creative period
(1918-1961).
The first annual Christian Petersen Faculty Forum is co-sponsored by the
University Museums and The Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities
(CEAH).
Christian Petersen (1885-1961) worked as a sculptor from the 1920s through
the 1950s, primarily in Iowa. He is best known today for the large
sculptural public works of art found throughout the campus of Iowa State
University in Ames. Joining the faculty in 1934, Petersen was the first
permanent artist-in-residence at an American college. Working in the
mid-century, from the prosperity of the 1920s through the Great Depression
and World War II and into the Atomic Age, he was able to capture the tenor
of his times. Petersen often dealt with subjects that are unusual in
American sculpture but important in overall culture, such as rural life,
religion, and college experience. His style was a straightforward realism,
consisting of smooth and unelaborated planes; solid and generalized masses,
and a clarity of form that sometimes bordered on geometric precision. Yet,
he disdained modernism and never produced anything that could truly be
considered abstract or non-objective. Despite (or perhaps because of) his
traditional style, Petersen's art has endured and he remains one of the
premier American artists of the 20th century.
Abstracts:
Iowa State University faculty are encouraged to submit scholarly abstracts
(300-500 words) discussing
artistic work relevant to Christian Petersen's art, teaching and era.
Presentations will run 20-25 minutes in length. All abstract submissions should
contain the faculty name, email and mailing address, department or program
affiliation, title of the presentation.
Scholarship and works of art will be evaluated on the basis of originality,
clarity of expression and strength of presentation. A panel of faculty and
college administrators will select the program. Papers and works of art not
included in the Forum will be considered for the University Museums public
lecture series.
Abstracts may be sent as hard copy to the Center for Excellence in the
Arts and Humanities, 171 Carver Hall (2060) or e-mailed as a PDF to:
snorvell@iastate.edu. Questions may be answered by calling on-campus,
294-1594.
